Dead California

Beginning of the End

Panicking, Robert rushes to Susan quickly, asking her

“What’s the matter?”

            “T-there’s a man outside the window and he was up against the glass, trying to b-break it.”

Tears were forming in the corner of her eyes. Confused Robert walked over to the window and inspected it. The window had cracks in it. What the hell could that have been?

            “There was definitely someone wailing on this window.”

Susan, shaking walks over by Rob and gives him a hug, crying slightly into his shoulder. Her voice muffled she says,

            “I was so scared Rob, I-I didn’t know what to do I was in shock.”

Rob runs his hands thorough her hair to calm her. Then places his hand on her chin and raises her head up a bit and gingerly gives her a light kiss.

            “It will be okay Suzie, get Exton and we’ll go sit on the couch and see if the news is playing anything about what happened earlier. Okay?

            He said slightly uncertain. Rob looks at her with those big brown puppy eyes. How could anyone say no to those eyes?

            “Alright”

She calmed down and scoops up crying Exton. She rubs his back and walks slowly with Rob to the couch and places him into Indio’s lap. Trying to comfort Exton, Indio starts to make funny faces and Exton starts to smile and laugh. He smiles at his little brother’s laugh, ruffling his hair. Rob turns the television on and turns the channel to the news.

            The news anchor came up again. Robert and Susan had a bad feeling about this. Indio watched intently, securely holding the adorable infant. The news anchor was in an empty street. Her face was drained and she looked deathly pale.

            “S-something terrible has happened. I don’t k-know how to…”

She trailed off slightly, the beginning again,

            “What was thought to only p-possible in movies…”

She paused a bit, stuttering.

            “Z-zombies”

The camera suddenly falls over then a blood curdling scream was heard. Scratches and cracks formed on the screen. The high heels of the anchor could be seen running away and a thump hitting the ground was heard. A low growling resounded. The camera then fuzzed out and went black.

Silence...

Robert looks over at Susan with creases around his eyes.

            “What was that?”

            “I d-don’t know.”

Susan was shaken; Robert moved over and put an arm around her. Indio held Exton snugly in his lap, just as confused as Susan and Robert.

Then there was sudden screaming outside, and a rapid thumping turned into pounding on their window.

            They both whipped their heads around. Indio held Exton protectively. Susan moved closer to Robert. Getting up and signaling Indio and Susan to sit down. He walked slowly towards the window.

            ‘What could it be?’ Rob thought to himself.

Getting closer and closer to the window, Robert was almost there.

Then the noise of shattering glass broke the silence.